A blog by Voice.

When Osama Bin Laden had terrorists fly planes into the
World Trade Center Towers, they attacked a symbol of our financial system.
They may have dreamed of bringing down our entire financial system, however attacking
the symbol was all they could accomplish. It is our own Wall Street Bankers and
Financial Managers who have managed to actually bring down the financial
system. They accomplished something Osama Bin Laden was not able to do.

Bin Laden must wish he could send our Wall Street
Financial Managers thank you notes for doing what he wanted to do but could not achieve. Maybe he is still looking for the appropriate thank you notes. It isn't easy to find good stationary when living in a cave.

Our Wall Street Financial Managers don't see themselves as financial terrorists or enemies of our democracy. They are
too busy beating their chests and thinking they deserve huge compensation
bonuses. They have even been so arrogant that they can convince others that,
despite the fact their ignorance and greed got us into this mess, they are the
only people able to get us out of it and therefore deserve even more
compensation!

Do they hire these guys for their ego's?It certainly isn't for empathy
and their desire to help others.Similar to Tom Wolf's, " Bonfire Of
The Vanities" where one of the Wall Street Master's
of the Universe runs over a man in a poor neighborhood and doesn't feel he even needs to stop the car, our financial managers apparently don't see that they have done anything wrong. They have run over an entire nation and
don't feel they need to stop the car.I
suppose it must be difficult to be a "Master of the Universe" and have a conscience, they appear to be mutually exclusive.Many of our current upper level
financial managers, CEOs, and stockbrokers have proven that.

I just wonder how they can feel this way when our real
heroes, the firefighters, raced up the stairs of the burning towers to save
their lives and the lives of so many people in the burning World Trade Center
Towers.Those firefighters risked
and in horrifying numbers lost their lives, not because they get paid millions
of dollars a week. In fact some financial managers get paid in one week what it
takes a firefighter 20 years to earn. These same people are most likely the
people who think firefighters get paid enough. I wonder how many of AIG's
top management or Bank of America's Board members or CEOs would run
into a burning building to rescue someone else?

These financial institutions are now using taxpayer money
to pay lobbyists to fight against the very taxpayers that have bailed them out.
They are using taxpayer money to fight the Unions which are trying to pass the
Employee Free Choice Act. They can continue to live in penthouses on government
money, may have been carried out of a burning building by a firefighter and
then have no problems fighting against those samepeople who may have rescued them, by opposing their right to
organize and fight for wages they can live on. WOW! It is amazing, how does one
have so little conscience?

How does our government believe it is o.k. for
taxpayerTARPbailout money to be used by financial
institutions to pay lobbyists? I would think that should be on the list of
restrictions associated with getting TARP funds- A good way to phrase it might
be" Do not use TARP funds to pay
lobbyists to fight against the taxpayers who are supporting your penthouse
apartments."

Maybe the financial managers should donate their bonuses
to the NYC families of firefighters or other public employees killed or
incapacitated from the health effects of going through the ruble at the World
Trade Center.Since now with the
bailout, these financial managers have become government employees, should government
employees who run into burning buildings and save lives make so much less than
government employees whose greed destroyed our economy?

I keep hearing the ridiculous argument that the only
minds that can get us out of this mess are the ones that created it. Hence, the
justification for high salaries andretention bonuses. However, Einstein, who most people believe was quite smart,stated "No problem can be solved from
the same level of consciousness that created it."

I feel more confident having the firefighters get us out
of this mess. They manage families on limited budgets, they are incredibly
brave and unselfish and willing to run into burning buildings to rescue others.
They are able to assess high risk situations quickly and figure out a plan.
Sounds like perfect management skills.

However, I would not want financial managers to take on
the job of firefighters. Just imagine what that would mean. They would start
the fires, let the fire get out of control and then negotiate contracts that
allowed them to not show up to put out the fire and still get paid. Not
qualities we would want in our firefighters, but qualities we are willing to
listen to others try to convince us is " normal in the financial
industry."Does anyone really believe those are
the qualities that should be rewarded and relied upon to get us back on track!

I was taught, hire for values, so given that, I vote for
the firefighters to get us out of this financial mess. I would much rather have
them taking over the financial managers and bankers jobs than allowing the
financial managers, who created the financial fire, to stay on at taxpayer
expense at the same high rate of pay.

Firefighters don't start the fires and then
decide they need more money to extinguish the fire. We wouldn't tolerate that. If we let the financial managers negotiate the firefighters
contracts, the firefighters would be allowed to start fires, then require huge
retention bonuses to stay and fight them. They wouldalso negotiate being able to noteven show up at the fire, or to get fired and receive
millions of dollars for being fired.

Why does this sound so ridiculous when we talk about it
in terms of firefighters? They risk their lives running into burning buildings
for a lot less money than financial managers receive and firefighters have to
meet much higher expectationsin terms of performance.They actually have to show up at their jobs to get paid. They don't
get millions of dollars in retention bonuses after they have already failed and
left! What kind of world would we have if everyone took on the attitudes of
financial managers? Firefighters would be stopping outside a burning building
to negotiate retention bonuses.

Should financial managers be kept up in their ivory
towers at great public expense after the bailout?

We keep hearing they need
high salaries to keep good people. Maybe I'm missing something, but given
the mess they have gotten us into, I don't think they are the brightest
lights.

I was taught never hire the narcissist, the one that
presents so well at the interview because they think so highly of themselves.
The narcissist never believes they are doing a bad job and when you tell them
they are, they lash out like a bear protecting their cub. I was also taught to hire
for values since you can teach skills easier than you can teach values.

Based on these principles, I would put my money on the
firefighters doing a better job as financial managers than the current ones we
have.

I'm sure Osama Bin Laden is pleased by the works of
these Financial Terrorists and perhaps even more pleased by our continued
reliance upon them. Who would imagine that the lethal combination of too many
people who see themselves as "Master's of the
Universe" and that narcissism and greed could bring down an entire financial system!

Who would have thought that financial terrorists, able to
bring down our entire financial system and then hold the entire country hostage
to pay their expensive salaries, would be a bunch of narcissists on Wall Street
and Osama Bin Laden didn't even do the hiring.

Trust me on the Firefighters- I'm sure they
could do a much better job.